Exercises For carpal tunnel syndrome and wrist pain (Video)

Exercises for carpal tunnel syndrome and wrist pain

I recently got a message from a friend on Facebook asking me to make a video addressing a hand problem he’s been suffering from. He happens to be a guitar player that is specifically limited due to an index finger problem. From the sounds of it, it could be a common issue found with people who have carpal tunnel syndrome. Being a guitar player myself, I completely understand how taxing playing the instrument can be on the musculature of the forearm. Couple that with all the typing I do for this website and there’s a recipe for major dysfunction in my wrist and hands. Fortunately, I have learned a few techniques to help me when I begin to get lingering symptoms of and discomfort in my hand. The video above I demonstrate to techniques to help release the forearm musculature that will in turn relax the hands and hopefully that index finger.

Before going all out on these MFR techniques, it is advised that you address problems happening in the shoulder and neck to ensure you’re getting at the root dysfunction first. Often times, the main issue with people having hand trauma can usually be a result of poor kinetic function originating in the thoraco-scapular and gleno-humeral region. I have trained clients with carpal tunnel syndrome and one of the best aids in transitioning their hand and wrist was addressing their posture in the upper body. With that said, the body is a completely integrated system and it is highly unlikely that we will address the upper body without doing something on the lower structures. Regardless, the techniques on this video have proven to be very useful for my clients and myself.

Enjoy!!!

Transcript:

Hey, guys. This is Naudi here with functional patterns. For today’s video tutorial, I’m going to be doing a request that a friend of mine named Mo Khan sent me on Facebook. Apparently he’s been having problems with his index finger. He plays the guitar. He knows that I’m a musician as well, so he was asking me what I might do to help improve mobility in his hands so that way he can start shredding that guitar again.

Now, before I start, what we want to be aware of beforehand is what’s happening in the glenohumeral region before anything that’s happening in the hand. We have to realize that the neurological signals start at the brachial plexus nerve, go down through the shoulder, and then eventually into the forearm.

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So something I would recommend for you specifically Mo, would be that you would release your pecs, release your lats, try getting into your subscapularis.

Get into those muscles first, just so you know that you’re improving function out of your scapula region, and then that should probably help how the tension is in this region. Like I’ve had people who have had a wrist problem, hand problems in the past, and I’ve found that a great fix for that is a lot of times in just getting into those pecs and lats and subscapularis.

And I’ve had people who’ve had really bad pain, and I went through those techniques, and they end up feeling a lot better thereafter.

So I would recommend doing that first. But if you’re doing that and then it doesn’t get better, here’s a couple techniques that you can do to help you improve your function in your wrist and your hands.

So to start, what we’re going to be focusing on is lying down here on the floor. I’m going to be bringing one hand down to kind of rest my head onto and then I’m going to bring my other hand onto the hanbo here. So I’m bringing this hand onto this specific region. I’m going to just start releasing this specific muscle called the pronator teres.

Now this muscle right here is one that is going to need to open up. This muscle, when it gets tight it’ll tend to turn the wrist downward in this direction. So when you do that, you’re trying to hold that guitar, it may inhibit how far you can turn that wrist outward, and it will also limit how well that index finger is going to move. So if we start breaking the tissues up here, it’s going to allow us to open that up significantly more.

So all I’m going to do is just put that pressure directly on that region to help relax that muscle.

We just keep that pressure on there. Pretty basic, nothing real complex about it. I would say doing that for about 4 to 5 minutes should help you significantly. Going to be gentle at first, kind of let the muscle sink into it. After you feel them begin to relax, you can begin to apply a little more pressure. So that will help significantly with that supination and pronation of the forearms and really give you that mobility there. After you’ve gotten done doing both sides of your hands, make sure you do both hands, you can go to the other side.

I’m going to need this as my headrest. Then from there I’m going to put my arm like this, this time, and I’m going to get into the brachial radialis. This muscle right here also tends to get very inflamed after the forearm has been pronated coming downwards. So if we get in here and start breaking this stuff up, it should take a significant amount of tension directly off that wrist and off the hand, just based upon its influence directly onto the wrist and fingers.

So I’ll just go here, and then I’ll keep that pressure directly onto this region. I can use my opposite hand to apply pressure specifically in this area.

Those are a couple forearm release techniques. Hope we’ve helped you out, Mo. Again, think about the kinetic changes function happening in the rest of your body, specifically in that glenohumeral region. Because if you don’t address those specific areas, it’s never going to resolve what’s happening down here. So again, get at the root of what’s happening with the problem.

Something else to keep in mind is that if you do have a sway in the lumbar, typically your hips might shift. Your posture begins to compensate, and then that’s what could actually be creating the shoulder issue, which then can be creating the wrist issue, and then from there eventually you get the problems in the hands. So the best solution for everything is to learn how to integrate the whole body in your posture. And once you do that you’ll be more apt towards integrating everything better, so then you don’t have forearm or hand problems later on down the road.

I hope you guys enjoyed that video. This is Naudi Aguilar reminding you to live intentionally and not habitually. You guys take care.